Bantry, Ireland has now become the country's first fluoride free town. The dangers of fluoride have not gone unnoticed. In the last decade hundreds of communities around the United States have rejected fluoride through ballot initiatives and lobbying. Albuquerque, New Mexico is the 32nd largest city in the country and the largest population to remove fluoride from their water supply. The push back against adding fluoride to the water supply has become an international struggle. In southwest Ireland, in the area known as West Cork lies a small rural town that has been the center of a new movement against water fluoridation. Bantry, Ireland has become the first fluoride free town in all the country. Owen Boyden, and the West Cork Fluoride Free Campaign launched the effort in Bantry and have plans to take the campaign to other towns in West Fork. Boyden and the Fluoride Free group took a different route than most cities..Instead of going to city council and attempting to change the law, or gathering petition signatures, the group worked with six local businesses to install water filtration systems so they can offer their customers a choice of food and drinks made without fluoridated water. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has declared fluoride safe to drink, stating that it poses no known medical threat to the population. Boyden called the practice an "outdated and dangerous public health initiative" and hoped more towns would take similar action. He cited reports of a number of illnesses linked to fluoride, including osteoporosis, arthritis, bone fracture, hypersensitivity, kidney disease, pineal gland dysfunction, skeletal fluorosis, thyroid disease, and acute toxicity. A new Harvard study: Fluoride Linked To Neurological Disorders: Suggests that fluoride, a chemical compound found in most water supplies, could be linked to mental disorders. The study suggested that the most vulnerable time was when a woman was pregnant. Pregnancy put both the mother and unborn child at high risk when they were exposed to certain chemicals. The highest level of vulnerability is during utero, infancy, and early childhood, because this is when the brain is going through the most developmental stages, according to the authors of the study. Grandjean, suggested that what they were primarily seeing was lowering of IQ, shortening of attention span, and behavioral problems that are generally associated with ADHD. Grandjean and Landrigan called for stricter regulations when it came to certain chemicals(http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/mental-...). Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence. In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy. Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity. To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse(http://press.thelancet.com/chemicals.pdf). Read more: http://benswann.com/ada-recommends-fluoride-for-children-ireland-gets-first-fluoride-free-town/#ixzz2tpvBLvrl Follow us: @BenSwann_ on Twitter

• published: 20 Feb 2014
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